Tried to Do Everything Right
by Name Withheld by RequestLink to article
After graduating from a top university, everyone kept telling me how I had so many opportunities opened to me. My wife and I tried to do everything right after graduation. We moved to a cheaper city, got a small mortgage, and got jobs.
And we were meeting expenses, paying off school credit and mortgage early, and saving some money. All of this by carefully living a frugal lifestyle. The housing inflation destroyed this. Suddenly, our real estate taxes rose over 20% each year since 2003.
At the same time, health insurance became more and more expensive. Yet our income remained static due to the recession. We suddenly found ourselves in the red, and through no fault of our own.
There really isn’t a choice for moving away since cheap places don’t have jobs available, and places with jobs are expensive. Ironically, our house is still one of the most affordable solutions in the area. And also ironic is that but for a few thousand dollars more, we would be in the black. Yet those few thousand dollars more are very elusive to obtain.